Wildlife Promise » Arctic National Wildlife Refugehttp://blog.nwf.org
The National Wildlife Federation's blogFri, 31 Jul 2015 19:00:24 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3NWF Hosts 2015 Wildlife Conservation Briefing with Congresswoman Ann McLane Kusterhttp://blog.nwf.org/2015/01/nwf-hosts-2015-wildlife-conservation-briefing-with-congresswoman-ann-mclane-kuster/
http://blog.nwf.org/2015/01/nwf-hosts-2015-wildlife-conservation-briefing-with-congresswoman-ann-mclane-kuster/#commentsWed, 28 Jan 2015 20:41:19 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=103489On January 3, 2015 the 114th Congress was sworn in – and with it came an incredible opportunity to make 2015 a year of conservation victories for wildlife. That’s why we got together last night by phone with over 150 of National Wildlife Federation activists and leaders from across the country for a 2015 Wildlife Conservation Briefing!

A river otter swims through a canal in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, FL. Photo by Sara Lopez.

Just a few days into the new Congressional session, a series of bills and amendments were introduced to undermine conservation and threaten wildlife. At the same time, President Obama has the opportunity to finalize one set of historic new rules that reduce pollution from power plants and another that would safeguard millions of acres of wetlands and streams vital for river otters, migratory birds and waterfowl.

We know that what we do at the National Wildlife Federation to advocate for critical conservation protections makes a huge difference in Congress. Congresswoman Kuster (D-NH) explains in this clipwhy taking action, reaching out to our representatives and fighting for our conservation values is more important than ever in 2015.

Clean Air

President Obama’s Clean Power Plan is taking unprecedented steps to reduce carbon pollution, combat climate change and protect people and wildlife. The plan has set carbon limits for old and new power plants, taken steps to reduce methane leakage and has begun making landmark agreements with foreign nations to reduce carbon. And all of this is being done using longstanding authorities under the Clean Air Act. Listen, as CEO Collin O’Mara explains how we need to work together to protect these important actions as Congress tries to derail them.

Congress has started its session by voting on the swift approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline has long been opposed by NWF because of its climate impacts, and because of its potential impacts to wildlife, ecosystems and the Ogallala aquifer. However, even as we saw this attack on the environment move forward, Congress also voted on several amendments to the Keystone XL Pipeline bill that garnered unprecedented bi-partisan support for the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that humans are having a significant impact.

Clean Water

As this new Congress unfolds, the health and safety of our streams and wetlands, lakes, rivers, and bays hang in the balance. Most immediately, next week, on February 4th Congress will hold a rare joint House-Senate hearing to attack the Clean Water Rule – a critically important EPA initiative that will clarify and restore Clean Water Act protections for millions of wetland acres and stream miles, and the drinking water supplies of 1 in 3 Americans.

This important rule clarifies and restores longstanding protections for headwater streams and wetlands that feed our drinking water supplies and play an important role in fishing, hunting, and the future of our outdoor economy. Additionally, the proposed rule gives much-needed certainty to farmers, land owners, and businesses, saving them time and money. Without this rule, confusion over which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act would continue. Listen, as Collin O’Mara talks about the Toledo algal blooms that happened just a few months ago and why it’s so important that we take action to protect clean water for people and wildlife.

Our Public Lands

Supporters of making Colorado’s Brown Canyon a national monument hope that President Obama will approve a designation. Photo courtesy of Friends of Browns Canyon.

The Arctic Wildlife Refuge is a spectacular ecosystem and home to some of the nation’s most iconic wildlife. Unfortunately, the 114th Congress is likely to push for drilling in the refuge instead of protecting it. Now, we have an opportunity to fight back and support President Obama’s proposed new management plan that calls on Congress to protect this special place.

The President also has the opportunity to protect places like Brown’s Canyon in Colorado or Boulder White Clouds in Idaho by establishing them as National Monuments under the Antiquities Act (first used by President Theodore Roosevelt to establish the Grand Canyon as a national monument.) Unfortunately, Congress is looking to attack or eliminate the President’s ability to designate national monuments under the Act.

Hear from CEO Collin O’Mara about why we need to fight back against these anti-conservation bills.

Take Action

If one thing is clear from last night’s Wildlife Conservation Briefing, it’s that we are going to need your help this year to protect wildlife and habitat and fight for conservation victories!

Here are three ways that you can take action today!

1. Urge your Senators to vote to support the Clean Power Plan. We will face all to many attacks in the coming year, and will need rapid responses to members of Congress telling them that Americans like you want to see action on climate and clean energy

2. Please call, email, tweet, and post on your member of congress’ facebook pages your own version of this basic clean water message: “The proposed Clean Water Rule is a critical priority for hunters, anglers, nature lovers, fish, and wildlife in (state). We urge Senator/Representative _____ to #ProtectCleanWater and express support for the Clean Water Rule.”

3. Please send a message to President Obama thanking him for his actions to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and urging him to use his authority to protect additional public lands, including Browns Canyon.

The Arctic Refuge is wild, spectacular, and it belongs to all Americans. The Refuge’s Coastal Plain in particular provides a home for wildlife like muskoxen, wolves, caribou, Arctic foxes, mother polar bears and their cubs. Birds flock here to nest from every state in the union and six continents. And yet, its very existence remains under constant threat from outside interests that want to plunder it for short-term profit.

With the release of a new “Comprehensive Conservation Plan” for the Arctic Refuge, the Obama administration became the first in history to make a Wilderness recommendation for the Refuge’s Coastal Plain. It’s big news because it would finally reverse the longstanding Reagan era recommendation to drill for oil in the Coastal Plain. The Wilderness recommendation sends the message to Congress that the administration – like the American people – wants to see Congress finally act to protect this sacred place. Only Congress can pass a Wilderness bill to once and for all safeguard this American icon from risky oil and gas development.

The Arctic Refuge represents our nation’s finest example of intact, naturally functioning Arctic and subarctic ecosystems. It is called the “American Serengeti” by some because it is one of the only places on earth where large herds of caribou are free to roam, similar to the days when herds of buffalo roamed the West.

For thousands of years, the Gwich’in people have regarded the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge as “Iizhik Gwat’san Gwandaii Goodlit” or “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins,” because it has been the most frequently used birthing and nursery grounds for the migratory Porcupine caribou herd. This massive caribou herd, and the Arctic Refuge in general, provides the foundation for the social, economic and spiritual fabric of the lives of Gwich’in and Inupiat people. Preserving the Arctic Refuge is a matter of basic human rights for the people who deserve to be able to continue their tradition of living off their ancestral lands.

Like Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and all the majestic lands protected by proud generations before us –- thank you, President Obama, for calling on Congress to designate this sacred place as Wilderness. We hope Congress will heed your call.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2015/01/obamas-arctic-proposal-would-protect-arctic-foxes/feed/3Celebrating 50 Years of American Wildernesshttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/09/celebrating-50-years-of-american-wilderness/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/09/celebrating-50-years-of-american-wilderness/#commentsWed, 17 Sep 2014 19:12:26 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=100243On September 3rd we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act and this week, folks in DC are continuing that celebration in the only way we know how: by asking members of Congress to continue to put this legislation to work. Wilderness designation is the pinnacle of landscape conservation; it provides protection into perpetuity. There are still countless landscapes, where wildlife live and thrive, that are under constant attack by those who would rather develop than hunt, fish, hike, or recreate on these largely untouched tracts of lands.

The best way to celebrate this significant anniversary and demonstrate to your elected officials how much you care about protecting America’s wilderness is to get outside and enjoy it!Here are some of our favorite places, found all across the country, where you can do just that. What is your wilderness wonderland?

Sawtooth Wilderness, Idaho

Established as a Wilderness: August 22, 1972Wildlife: Mountain goats, elk, mule deer, cougar, black bear, bobcats, coyotes, trout and wolverinesApproximate Size: 217,088 acresFun Fact: 50 of the hundreds of peaks in the Sawtooth Mountains are over 10,000 feet high and there are over 400 high alpine lakes that can be found scattered through these mountain peaks.

Breton Wilderness, Louisiana

Established as a Wilderness: January 3, 1975Wildlife: laughing gulls, royal, Caspian and sandwich terns, nutria, raccoons, and sea turtlesApproximate Size: 5,000 acresFun Fact: Breton and Chandeleur Islands, where the Breton Wilderness is located, are less than 300 years old and were created by silt washing down the Mississippi River and accumulating just off the delta.

Great Swamp Wilderness, New Jersey

Established as a Wilderness: September 28, 1968Wildlife: Mallards, American black duck, green and blue-winged teals, bufflehead, American wigeon, white-tailed deer, red fox, grey squirrel, river otter, and muskratApproximate Size: 3,660 acresFun Fact: The Great Swamp was created 25,000 years ago when the Wisconsin glacier retreated, leaving this wetlands habitat in its wake.

Great Gulf Wilderness, New Hampshire

Established as a Wilderness: September 3, 1964Wildlife: Moose, fox, rock vole, and American pitpitApproximate Size: 5,658 acresFun Fact: The Great Gulf Wilderness was one of the original wilderness areas designated under the Wilderness Act of 1964.

Big Slough Wilderness, Texas

Established as a Wilderness: October 30, 1984Wildlife: Largemouth bass, panfish, channel catfish, alligators, beavers, deer, and butterfliesApproximate Size: 3,639 acresFun Fact: Located in the Davy Crockett National Forest, Big Slough Wilderness is the smallest wilderness area in the state of Texas.

Keep America’s Wild Places Safe!

Oil and gas companies are threatening one of our most iconic landscapes, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with exploration and drilling. That’s why one of the things we’re asking Members of Congress to do this week is to co-sponsor legislation designating Alaska’s Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/09/celebrating-50-years-of-american-wilderness/feed/2Arctic Birds Suffering in A Changing Climatehttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/arctic-birds-suffering-in-a-changing-climate/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/arctic-birds-suffering-in-a-changing-climate/#commentsTue, 28 Jan 2014 01:23:12 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=91020North in the Arctic, there is a mystery unfolding. Populations of birds have entered into a sharp and rapid decline, leaving scientists scrambling to understand just what is happening. As Ed Struzik for Yale’s Environment 360 reports, both the birds and the species they prey on are suffering.

American kestrel photo taken by Barbara Fleming, from the National Wildlife Photo Contest.

“There’s no doubt that something is happening,” says Dave Mossop, a biologist at Yukon College who has been studying birds in the Yukon for more than 40 years. “Kestrels here are declining so fast, it’s scary. As many as 60 percent of the adult peregrines we have in the Yukon haven’t even bothered nesting in recent years. Our gyrfalcons are breeding much later, seem to be producing fewer young, and are declining in abundance.”

There is one likely culprit, climate change. Surviving in a harsh landscape like the Arctic requires a careful strategy, one that can be thrown wildly out of alignment by shifts in temperature.

In the case of the Arctic, warmer temperatures can mean more mosquitoes harassing some species, or longer rain seasons that have literally drowned some peregrine chicks in their nests.

NWF’s senior scientist Doug Inkley voiced his concern as well. “This report of widespread bird declines in areas where climate change is at its most extreme doesn’t bode well for the future of these birds adapted to Arctic ecosystems.” As our own report on migratory birds found, it is a crisis birds across the nation are facing.

If we can ever hope to reverse this decline, and to help preserve the homes of these birds in places like the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, we need to take action now. As the tendrils of climate change reach even the most remote natural areas on the planet, we need to redouble our efforts to move away from carbon fuels and cut our emissions.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/arctic-birds-suffering-in-a-changing-climate/feed/0Will the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Make Public Land Disappear?http://blog.nwf.org/2012/12/will-the-fiscal-cliff-make-public-land-disappear/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/12/will-the-fiscal-cliff-make-public-land-disappear/#commentsMon, 03 Dec 2012 13:55:51 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=71508Will the looming ‘fiscal cliff’ lead to the disappearance and destruction of our public lands? It could if some Members of Congress have it their way.

Last week, Rep. Rob Bishop (UT) and Rep. Steve Pearce (NM) sent a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner, claiming that selling off public land and taking more public land for drilling will help solve our budget crises. This isn’t a unique idea—Paul Ryan’s House-passed budget proposal also calls for selling our public land to the highest bidder.

It’s true that Congress will need to come up with ideas on how to reduce our deficit, but selling cherished parks, forests, and wilderness isn’t the right one. Auctioning away America’s natural wonders is a reckless endeavor that will only hurt local economies, destroy wildlife habitat, and obstruct access to millions of people who enjoy hiking, fishing, hunting, and exploring our country’s public lands.

Whether its through direct jobs, tourism, or gear for outdoor activities, public lands pump billions of dollars into our economy. According to the Outdoor Industry Association, the outdoor recreation economy supports 6.1 million direct American jobs and $646 billionin direct consumer spending each year.

Public lands also provide critical wildlife habitat and are necessary for cleaning our air, providing clean water, and sequestering carbon pollution. Sacrificing these things now is a short sighted move that will hurt future generations.

In addition to selling public lands, Reps. Bishop and Pearce call for opening up pristine American landscapes to destructive drilling: places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to endangered polar bears, millions of migrating birds, and the Porcupine caribou herd.

Reps. Bishop and Pearce’s proposal to take over public lands for drilling is out of touch with American voters, including individuals that hunt, fish, and recreate on our public lands:

A recent poll found that sportsmen prioritize protecting public lands above energy production. Given a choice between protecting America’s public lands and prioritizing the production of oil, gas and coal, 49 percent want to protect public lands and just 35 percent choose fossil fuel production.

Another post-election Zogby poll found that independent voters favor wind and solar over fossil fuels by a 4-to-1 margin: 48 percent pick renewable energy while only 11 percent prioritize more oil and gas drilling on America’s public lands.

Tackling our budget is a serious issue — but it shouldn’t lead to the destruction and disappearance of our public lands. Congress should work together to protect programs that safeguard our air, water, and wildlife while finding a balanced approach to the deficit.

This week a Shell Oil Co. drilling rig, the Kulluk, headed towards the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s northern coast to begin drilling operations. This flagship effort to open up Arctic waters to drilling has already received the thumbs up from the Obama Administration. I can’t help but recall all those “what if” moments following the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. What if we hadn’t turned a blind eye to insufficient spill planning? What if we had proper oversight of oil companies and held them accountable for lying about the risks before approving their permits? What if we truly weighed the risks and the rewards of moving into new drilling frontiers before disaster strikes?

Shell’s rig is not simply another rig. It is the pioneer, intended to open a new frontier and convert an unspoiled aquatic wilderness into the next big oil rush. These waters are vital habitat for an abundance of wildlife such as ringed seals, as well as whales that travel the world’s oceans and birds that migrate across North America every year.

Shell Oil: A Large Spill is Not “Reasonably Foreseeable.”

As a team of oil spill experts warned in a thorough report of Arctic ocean drilling the risks are being minimized and ignored now just as they have been ignored before, as we witnessed so tragically with BP’s ultra deepwater operations. In the Gulf, we had the largest spill response infrastructure in the country to support a dense concentration of long term operations. In the remote Arctic waters, there is nothing except rough seas and sea ice that can close waters to recovery operations for long periods of time. Shell is bringing up a single spill response barge. It’s hard enough to cast a crab pot in these waters, let alone contain millions of barrels of spilled oil. NWF’s Peter Lafontaine noted last summer this statement by US Coast Guard Commandant Robert Papp:

“If the company fails, if the response plan fails, the federal government must in some way be able to back it up with some resources. We had plenty of resources, from bases to communication systems to helicopters, in the Gulf of Mexico. And if this were to happen off the North Slope of Alaska, we’d have nothing.”

So we are crossing our fingers and trusting that Shell can mobilize the resources to handle a spill. At least they are taking the risk seriously, right? Well, no:

“A large oil spill, such as a crude release from a blowout, is extremely rare and not
considered a reasonably foreseeable impact.” — Shell Alaska Chukchi Sea Exploration Plan

Sound familiar? Here’s what BP said in their Gulf drilling plans prior to the Deepwater Horizon blowout:

“In the event of an unanticipated blowout resulting in an oil spill, it is unlikely to
have an impact based on the industry-wide standards for using proven equipment
and technology for such responses.” —Oil Spill Response Plan for BP Deepwater Horizon Drilling

Should we trust an oil company to begin drilling in these unspoiled waters when their plans are based on the premise that a large oil spill isn’t “reasonably forseeable?” No, we know better. But they received a green light, anyway.

Does Wildlife Matter to Government Drilling Regulators?

Bearded Seal, via Kerry Ritz/Flickr

Too often, bad energy projects are allowed to proceed even when environmental analysis sends up huge red flags. Following the BP blowout, the Obama Administration reorganized the regulatory oversight of offshore drilling, which is now in the hands of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE). One year ago, BOEMRE approved Shell’s Beaufort Sea plan, stating that they had found “no evidence” that this project could significantly harm the environment.

No evidence?! Here are some of BOEMRE’s conclusions from their own environmental assessment of what could happen in a major spill (one that significantly underestimates the potential for a long-running blow-out like we saw in the Gulf):

Assuming that all young ringed and bearded seals exposed to the oil died because of absorption (through the skin), inhalation, and/or ingestion of toxic hydrocarbons in the oil, this loss could take these marine mammal populations more than one to two generations to recover Shell (p. 131-2).

Polar bears exposed to petroleum hydrocarbons through direct contact or by ingesting oiled prey would probably not survive (p. 132)

In lagoon habitats, long-tailed duck densities suggest that when large concentrations of molting individuals are present, tens of thousands could be contacted by spilled oil. This would constitute a substantial loss to the regional population. Notable losses would also be experienced by post-breeding common eiders concentrated near barrier islands and in lagoons. A spill …would be expected to contact several other species present in substantial numbers, including the king eider, scoters, northern pintail, Pacific loon, and glaucous gull. (p. 130-1)

Oil Disasters: An Acceptable Cost of Doing Business?

Everyone knows where this story ends up…it really comes down to how often and how big the spills will be off Alaska’s northern shores, and how badly wildlife is impacted. But the risks of a wildlife disaster are all an acceptable cost of doing business for oil companies. After all, BP pocketed $24 billion in profits in 2011. Deepwater Horizon was a financial blip for them, but the damages to marine life will be long-lasting.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/08/clock-ticks-down-for-arctic-marine-life-as-shell-oil-rig-heads-to-sea/feed/8Alaska Well Blowout Still Out of Control While Congress Wants to Drill in Polar Bear Countryhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/alaska-well-blowout-still-out-of-control-while-congress-wants-to-drill-in-polar-bear-country/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/alaska-well-blowout-still-out-of-control-while-congress-wants-to-drill-in-polar-bear-country/#commentsThu, 16 Feb 2012 19:17:52 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=44412Breaking news reports are coming in that an exploratory oil and gas well on Alaska’s North Slope has triggered a blowout that is still out of control. Meanwhile, Congress is pulling out every trick in the bag to open up a new, pristine landscape on the North Slope: the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to polar bears and other iconic wildlife.

According to the Alaska Dispatch, a well being drilled by Spanish company Repsol hit a methane gas pocket, which triggered the blowout. A crew of specialists all the way from Texas is traveling to the site, but meanwhile the well is spewing drilling mud–42,000 gallons and counting. An expert from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation explained that the drilling mud “is hazardous to the tundra.”

Should Big Oil Be Allowed to Drill (And Spill) in Places Like the Arctic Refuge?

credit, Susanne Miller/USFWS

This developing story is happening at the same exact time that lawmakers in the House of Representatives are debating whether to give Big Oil their entire wish list of places to drill (and spill), including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Some misguided members of Congress are using the excuse that extracting dirty fuels from a beautiful and untouched national treasure will pay for highway projects. But, thanks to people voicing their outrage across the country, some elected officials are standing up against the transportation and energy bill (H.R. 3408) that would bring ruin to wildlife and wild places.

The “terrible” transportation package in Congress opens up new drilling areas on the East and West Coast, off the coast of Alaska, and in the pristine coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, which is home to iconic wildlife like polar bears, caribou, Arctic fox, wolves, and more. House Republican leadership are using rare procedural tricks to split the bill up because many Members take serious issue with drilling impacts, so they may lack the votes to pass it all at once.

Representatives object to drilling off the coast of places like California and along the Atlantic coast, where oil spills and well blowouts, like in the Gulf spill and right now in Alaska, threaten communities that depend on tourism. Other lawmakers worry that a provision to grant industry 2 million acres of public land for oil shale speculation would generate zero energy, zero revenue, and zero jobs. A group of House Republicans even sent Speaker Boehner a letter requesting that Arctic Refuge drilling be taken out of the bill, continuing a legacy of moderate support for this pristine wilderness.

All of this new drilling revenue is supposed to pay for a chunk of the $260 billion transportation bill. But there’s one minor detail: much of this revenue is speculative and wouldn’t even pay for 1% of the total cost. Groups like Club for Growth, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Taxpayers for Common Sense agree that it is a fiscally irresponsible approach to paying for highways, bridges, and mass transit with imaginary money.

But Pipelines Transport Oil, Not People

The transportation package also requires approval of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline permit within 30 days, which irresponsibly overturns a recent decision by the President to deny the permit. This pipeline would move dirty Canadian tar sludge through the heartland of the U.S. to export to foreign countries, making the America complicit in the destruction of wilderness habitat in Alberta’s boreal forests and the senseless poisoning of wildlife to make room for the pipeline. The transportation legislation, if passed in its current state, would also fuel climate change that is already causing severe drought and economic damage in the United States. Building the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would threaten America’s clean water supplies, raise gas prices in the U.S. and result in a net loss to American jobs.

The legislation also waives environmental review for many projects, takes away dedicated dollars for public transportation and even defunds a program to establish safe routes for kids to get to school.

Big Oil is already double-dipping into our wallets. It is making record profit through taxpayer-funded subsidies and every time we pay at the pump–the industry doesn’t need another expensive gift from us.

Help Protect Wildlife from Arctic Drilling

Arctic wildlife are already suffering from loss of sea ice from global warming. The lives of species like the ringed seal and the polar bear would be at even greater risk from an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean, which would be virtually impossible to clean up in the remote and rough, frigid waters. The blowout on Alaska’s North Slope is a perfect example: a crew of specialists had to be called up from Texas to try and control the well.

Wildlife need you to speak up for them and tell their member of Congress that the entire transportation package is a bad deal for wildlife, our clean air and water, and the future of public transportation.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/alaska-well-blowout-still-out-of-control-while-congress-wants-to-drill-in-polar-bear-country/feed/4Mr. Polar Bear Goes to Washingtonhttp://blog.nwf.org/2011/11/mr-polar-bear-goes-to-washington/
http://blog.nwf.org/2011/11/mr-polar-bear-goes-to-washington/#commentsTue, 22 Nov 2011 22:56:18 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/?p=36243Washington, DC got a rare sight this week — Arctic wildlife walking through our nation’s capitol. If you were stuck in construction traffic on Constitution Avenue you may have caught sight of an Arctic Tern, a sandpiper, and yes, even two polar bears.

Photo Credit: Kelsey Bensch, The Wilderness Society

They didn’t break out of the National Zoo — they were just people in costume. But those people put on those heavy suits and walked down to the Department of the Interior in order to protect the real Arctic wildlife species.

National Wildlife Federation joined groups like Alaska Wilderness League, The Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife and more to deliver 860,000 comments urging wilderness protection for the coastal plain of the refuge to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Only Congress can designate wilderness through legislation, but a recommendation in Fish and Wildlife Service’s Comprehensive Conservation Plan would send a strong signal to Congress that oil and gas drilling is incompatible with the Refuge’s purpose.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Big Oil’s friends in Congress are still pushing a dirty energy agenda that includes open up the refuge to drilling and putting wildlife at risk. They are even pulling out their own costumes. Alaska Representative Don Young ‘donned’ a propeller beanie cap in a House Resources committee hearing in order to drive home the point that he favors more drilling on federal lands and waters.

Rep. Young wasn’t done there. He also got into a heated exchange with famous author and historian Douglas Brinkley (author of “The Wilderness Warrior” about President Teddy Roosevelt) at an oversight hearing on “ANWR (Arctic Refuge): Jobs, Energy and Deficit Reduction.” Clips from that hearing can be viewed here.

It’s clear that the pressure is on for the future of the Arctic Refuge and other sensitive areas at risk from drilling. If you would like to make a difference to protect wildlife by pushing back against drilling proponents, take action by weighing in with federal decision makers.

Even with all the unique beauty and diversity the Alaskan landscape has to offer, it has been a political battleground for over 30 years. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a national treasure which sustains more biological diversity than any other Arctic protected region, yet is constantly under attack by the oil industry. Big Oil wants to move their big drill rigs into the Arctic refuge, and are throwing around their big money on Capitol Hill to try to get their way. Under current law, Congress must approve any resource extraction activity on the refuge, including oil and gas drilling.

Right now, there are several proposals in Congress to drill for oil and gas in 1 million acres of the Arctic Refuge’s Coastal Plain. That’s why this region (a.k.a. the 1002 Area) is in desperate need of wilderness protection. In addition to supporting distinctive wildlife like muskoxen, a variety of waterfowl, diverse insects, and thousands of migratory birds, the Coastal Plain is critical for caribou herds that travel there in the summer months to birth and raise their calves.In fact, the Coastal Plain is known as the “Sacred Place Where Life Begins” to the native Gwich’in Nation, who have occupied this area for as long as 20,000 years and depend on the Porcupine caribou herd for their survival.

Arctic Fox

This fall, the Fish & Wildlife Service released a revised draft of the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for the Arctic Refuge. These documents are reworked periodically for each refuge and contain necessary guidelines for long-term management. The draft CCP for the Arctic Refuge lists several management plan alternatives, including a recommendation that the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain be designated a wilderness area, protecting it from oil and gas extraction.

The Fish & Wildlife Service will consider public comments before selecting a preferred plan, giving Americans everywhere the opportunity to protect this critical calving ground and diverse habitat from unnecessary resource extraction. The Coastal Plain is in serious jeopardy from the proposed drilling and the more comments sent in, the more of an impact we can make on the decision.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2011/11/one-week-left-to-be-heard-save-the-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge/feed/5New BP Spill, This Time in Alaskahttp://blog.nwf.org/2011/07/new-bp-spill-this-time-in-alaska/
http://blog.nwf.org/2011/07/new-bp-spill-this-time-in-alaska/#commentsMon, 18 Jul 2011 15:32:24 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/?p=27436We’re just learning about America’s second big oil spill in just the last month, this time new BP spill in Alaska:

BP said on Monday that a pipeline at its 30,000 barrel per day Lisburne field, which is currently closed for maintenance, ruptured during testing and spilled a mixture of methanol and oily water onto the tundra.

The London-based company has a long history of oil spills at its Alaskan pipelines – accidents which have hurt its public image in the U.S., where around 40 percent of its assets are based.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said the spill occurred on Saturday and amounted to 2,100 to 4,200 gallons.